On the night of November 17, 2010, Florissant Valley hosted its fifteenth annual Emerging Scholars Awards Banquet in the Student Center’s Multipurpose Room. The academic achievements of students and their mentors were recognized by their peers and faculty with a formal dinner, and they were each presented with a certificate signed by the school’s President Marcia Pfeiffer to represent their success.
Florissant Valley was also honored to have welcomed Representative Gina Walsh and Representative Margo McNeil, who is also a St. Louis Community College Board of Trustee member. Each student also received resolutions from the House of Representatives.
To become an Emerging Scholar a student needs to complete two developmental courses and twenty-four credit hours while maintaining a 3.5 grade point average. Students also have to be campus and community involved to be considered.
Emerging Scholars is a Florissant Valley campus only program. It was co-founded in 1996 by retired professors Otis Beard (Reading), Carol Edwards (Mathematics) and Mary Lauburg (English).
According to Adria Werner, Executive Assistant to the President, students are first sorted from a database within the qualified perimeters. They are then notified with a letter and a questionnaire requesting information about their mentors, what their career goals are and what involvement they have on campus and in the community. This information helps them to decide who will be awarded the Emerging Scholar of the Year Award. Werner is part of the program committee that helps narrow the search and puts together the banquet.
English teacher and committee member, Lonetta Oliver, explained that normally there is an average of twelve to fourteen students. This year has been the most at seventeen students. Oliver hopes this number will continue to increase.
The 2010 Emerging Scholar Award went to Patrick Johnson who plans on receiving his Associate’s Degree in Human Service. After that he will be pursuing his Bachelor’s in social work. He would like to use it towards helping veterans with drug and alcohol problems. Johnson said, he was very surprised to have been nominated and feels it is an honor. Upon earning this award, Johnson also received a monetary gift from the St. Louis Community College Foundation. Werner explained that the donations come from the faculty and staff of the college. This year’s award was five hundred dollars.
Joshua Golden, a political science major, said of earning his awards, “[It] feels great, feels wonderful, it feels good to be recognized for work and to know that he or she has a school that so deeply encourages and celebrates those who have started off at the foundational level and who have worked hard to achieve great things.”
Congratulations to the following scholars: Xin Chen, Toi Drummer, Katie Etris, Tyson Foor, Joshua Golden, Muna Heyari, My Huynh, Patrick Johnson, Ryan Lawson, Elizabeth Machens, Tabatha Madding, John Maguire, Ashley Noack, Laura Smart, Brittany Thomas, Angela Viviano, and Jessica Will.
Pictures from the event coming soon!
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